On Application Of Explicit Vocabulary Instruction In College English Teaching

With more and more widely use of English, both learners and researchers considerEnglish vocabulary as a crucial element in learning English. Nevertheless, the currentsituation in college English teaching is not very much satisfactory due to various reasonsincluding some teaching methods. Students have difficulty in acquiring a large number ofwords and using them appropriately. Therefore, a much more scientific model ofvocabulary teaching is duly demanded. The thesis mainly probes the effectiveness andfeasibility of the explicit vocabulary instruction in College English Teaching.Based on some cognitive theories, explicit vocabulary teaching emphasizes thatlearning is a kind of mental perception and a conscious process, which may arise students'interests and motivation in vocabulary learning. Applying the explicit vocabularyinstruction in the college English teaching is worthwhile and necessary.A three-month period of experiment is carried out in this research so as to testify theefficiency and feasibility of the new teaching approach. Participants (freshmen fromShanghai Dian Ji University) are divided into two groups, 30 students in each group. Theexperiment group is instructed with the new approach. Pre-tests, post-tests andquestionnaires are applied in the study. The data and analysis shows that the experimentgroup does make significant progress in vocabulary learning whereas the control group not.In addition to this, the explicit teaching method also has assisted students in developingtheir English ability in other aspects such as reading, translation and writing, which provesthat the new approach is superior to the traditional one adopted in the control group.